Garden of the Mind

Before having children, I used to externalize my thoughts—writing notes on the past, present, and future. I had more time and mobility to mirror my mind on the page and spruce up my cognitive appearance in line with what the page reflected back at me. Now, as a parent, my children constantly engage me. They hold my face, sit on my lap, and guide my hands away from the page. While endearing, this has forced me to think internally rather than through the medium of writing. Undone sentences and barely-there thoughts trail off the lines of many a notebook and loose paper. My thoughts were safe in my head, so I thought, rather than half-expressed on pages. 

The garden of my mind grew wild and I no longer identified as its gardener. I was more like a spectator than a caretaker. And I had resigned to believing that there was no other viable option. At least if my thoughts were in my head, they couldn’t be colored over by a kindergartener learning to spell her first name.

But a funny thing happened. My mind became a hazardous place to store my thoughts. It grew crowded, raucous, and thorny. My mental garden, which I used to count on for refuge, became too wild even for me. The buzz of the bees was as loud as a drill, the birds shot past me like bullets, the weeds tripped me, and the bugs under my feet made my whole body recoil.  

When we write, we unburden ourselves by the weight of what our souls carry and find repose in what we have placed before us on paper. Our minds are pruned by writing and any good gardener will tell you flowers grow lush and strong the more they are thoughtfully cut back. 

The mind is not just a vault; it is a garden dowered to us by a generous groom. We disrespect our mind by treating it like that one stuffed closet we placate with phony promises to organize. So, write. Let’s not dull our minds with one more untidy thought. Let the narrow point of your pen focus your mind’s attention, let your hand’s grip around it rein in unruly thoughts, and let its black ink stain the page with your ideas.